The minutes of the 1955 Annual Meeting note- in the Social Services Report-

Juvenile delinquency is growing at a rapid speed.  Parents are expecting Sunday School teachers to raise their boys and girls.  Many of them are given show money and sent out at night.  Many of them are given the family car to roam at will unchaperoned.   When the minister takes his stand against such destruction, he becomes very unpopular.  Preachers, in some instances, have been known to advocate many socials that lead to this blinding sin.  I have known deacons in the church to advocate turning our young people loose without a chaperone.  If all ministers will be led by the Spirit of Christ, this can and will be slowed down greatly.

 Their interest in behavioral and ethical correctness will be lost on many of our day but their intention was to preserve the purity and chastity of a generation.  If their example were still followed perhaps we would have fewer teen pregnancies and fewer abortions.  Interest in history, you see, isn’t simply arcane interest in an irrelevant past but a desire to learn where others have erred and succeeded so that we might avoid their errors and model their successes.

In 1953 - 8,258 people were enrolled in Sunday School in all the Churches of the Big Emory Association but only 2,632 attended regularly. That’s a remarkably small percentage. Churches then, as now, struggled to convince members to participate fully. And while we sometimes imagine that things were ‘better’ in the ‘good old days’ the facts demonstrate that things were not quite that good. The Church has always needed more committed members. Even back in the 50’s. And as now as well.

Sadie’s sister Eileen passed away overnight.  Please remember the family.